Rolling Girl
by MiraiRose
Summary: Rolling Girl has been bullied. Her parents died last year and she's alone. She never speaks to anyone, and as a result loses her voice. She can't take it anymore, she feels that she is imprisoned in her silence and trapped in this world. She seems to think rolling down this steep hill will free her from this prison, or in her words, "stop her breath." T for self-inflicted injury.


She threw herself over the steep hill

_One more time _

She climbed and rolled again

_Just a little more_

Her arms and legs were bleeding from cuts and scrapes. It didn't matter. None of it mattered. She could break her leg and still it wouldn't matter. She'd roll again and again.

She couldn't speak; her voice had been lost from never being used. She'd been bullied at school and nobody knew her pain.

As she rolled brambles and thorns stabbed her. Her eye was bruised and she could barely see. The cool air stung her cuts and she might have twisted an ankle.

None of it mattered.

_I'll roll until my breath stops_

She was alone in the world and thought she never did anything right. Who would miss her?

_One more time_

_One more time_

_I will roll again today_

She said this over and over in her head. She rolled one last time and collapsed.

She awoke to the sun in her eyes and her own blood drenching her socks. She wanted to roll again, but a truant officer found her.

"What are you doing out of school?"  
Unable to speak, she didn't respond. She realized she was still wearing her school uniform. The officer pulled her up and walked her to school.

"You're bleeding. When you get inside go right to the infirmary."

She walked away without any sign that she had heard him.

As she entered the school she barely noticed the people around her. People pointed and whispered. "She's covered in blood," "she needs a bath" "who _is_ she anyway?" a bully in the hall tripped her, and she fell face first to the hard floor. Her scabs broke open and she bled. People all through the hall were either laughing or crying out to her, but to her they were all the same, she couldn't make sense of any of it.

Somehow or other she found herself in the infirmary. Perhaps she had found it quiet and decided to stay. But now the nurse saw her and began to dress her wounds. "Honestly, child, what happened to you? You're covered in cuts and bruises. Your ankle is swollen, how on earth did you walk here?" the nurse rambled on, but the girl just sat there, not noticing that she was slowly being covered in bandages and ointment.  
"Well, off with you, get to your class," the nurse sent her away.

She didn't go to her class. She wandered the halls for hours until finally she came across a boy at the water fountain.  
She walked up to him silently and leaned against the wall. When he looked up, he gave a start and almost yelled.

She was staring at him with glazed, blank eyes. Her nose was dripping blood and she was covered in bandages and gauze, which she scratched absently. They looked at each other for another moment, him taking in the sight of her and her staring at him, unseeing.

The bell rang. With sudden life she ran from the building and headed for the hill.

"WAIT!" the boy yelled and ran after her, but got tangled in the crowd. As he left the school he spotted droplets of blood that had flecked the ground and a figure running in the distance. He ran to catch up with her.

She had already thrown herself over the hill again.

"Stop!" he called, but it was no use, she either couldn't hear him or was ignoring him completely. She climbed the hill again, and as she turned to jump he caught her wrist.

She didn't fight his grip or try to get away. She just stopped. She fell limp and he caught her and carried her away from the hill.  
"Why do you do that?" he asked her, but then he remembered that morning. He had been in the hallway where she was tripped, but he hadn't paid attention. "You've been bullied, haven't you? Why didn't you tell someone? You should have told your mother."  
At the word mother her eyes filled with tears and she let out a wailing cry.  
"Mother left," she spoke in her soft, broken voice, "She's in heaven and she's not coming back." Her voice cracked and broke. Speaking was painful.

"What about your father then?" this too upset her. "Papa's gone too. I'm alone."

She shook with tears and pain. "Let me roll one more time! I want to stop breathing!" she moved as if to head toward the hill again, but she stumbled and fell limp. She sat up again, crying, but he pulled her close.

"Never roll again. Please. You're not alone, you've got me. It will be okay."  
She wiped her tears on her bloodstained sleeve.

"Are you gonna be okay?"  
"I'm okay."


End file.
